Sensitive Tummy to Carrot and Fruit

[sofiakucera]

Hello I have noticed that whenever I feed my guinea pig carrot or fruit he gets loose stool and squeaks while pooping. This also happened with tomato but I slowly reintroduced them into his diet and now he’s fine with them. But i haven’t had the same result with carrots or fruit.
Back when I first got him I was still not the most educated on a proper diet (I now am) and fed him carrots frequently (without knowing that a carrot is equivalent to a candy bar for them) and he would have soft poops and squeak while pooping. No blood in pee or anything and I took him to the vet and they ruled out any stones or any UTI’s and said he was healthy. following that vet appointment I did my own research and realized that the carrots and fruit could have been causing it. I stopped feeding him carrots and fruit as frequently and almost hardly at all and just recently within the past few months started feeding them again here and there. Every time I do though he gets soft poops and squeaks while pooping. I take him off veggies for 48 hours and then slowly reintroduces his regularly veggies and his poops completely go back to normal and stops squeaking while pooping until i try fruit or carrot again. Should I just completely take away carrot from his diet for good? and maybe fruit too? Is this because since his tummy isn’t adjusted to the sudden carrot and fruit intake it just his gut re adjusting that’s causing this?
Any help or advice would be great !

 

[sofiakucera]

Hello I have noticed that whenever I feed my guinea pig carrot or fruit he gets loose stool and squeaks while pooping. This also happened with tomato but I slowly reintroduced them into his diet and now he’s fine with them. But i haven’t had the same result with carrots or fruit.
Back when I first got him I was still not the most educated on a proper diet (I now am) and fed him carrots frequently (without knowing that a carrot is equivalent to a candy bar for them) and he would have soft poops and squeak while pooping. No blood in pee or anything and I took him to the vet and they ruled out any stones or any UTI’s and said he was healthy. following that vet appointment I did my own research and realized that the carrots and fruit could have been causing it. I stopped feeding him carrots and fruit as frequently and almost hardly at all and just recently within the past few months started feeding them again here and there. Every time I do though he gets soft poops and squeaks while pooping. I take him off veggies for 48 hours and then slowly reintroduces his regularly veggies and his poops completely go back to normal and stops squeaking while pooping until i try fruit or carrot again. Should I just completely take away carrot from his diet for good? and maybe fruit too? Is this because since his tummy isn’t adjusted to the sudden carrot and fruit intake it just his gut re adjusting that’s causing this?
Any help or advice would be great !

I also want to add that within the long time period that I was not feeding him carrots and fruit he had no issues at all! this only occurs whenever he eats either carrot or fruit

 

[Piggies&buns]

Please do remove fruit and carrot from the diet entirely as it seems to be causing issues.
Neither of those items need to be in the diet in any event, so it’s not a problem for him not to have them

 

[sofiakucera]

Please do remove fruit and carrot from the diet entirely as it seems to be causing issues.
Neither of those items need to be in the diet in any event, so it’s not a problem for him not to have them

I agree. Thank you for your feedback. Moving forward I will be entirely removing those from his diet.

 

[weepweeps]

My two piggies are exactly the same with carrot too. I don’t give it to them anymore.

 

[Wiebke]

Guinea pigs can have or develop sensitivities to foods their gut microbiome is not or no longer adapted to digesting. Evey food you eat has their own specialised digestive bacteria in the gut. It is more noticeable in guinea pigs since their gut is so much larger in comparison with a human's.
Ideally, you focus on grass based fibre (hay or fresh grass - the latter needs careful introduction after any longer break; especially in spring) and green veg/leafy forage, which is the remaining 20-25% of the diet that is in pet piggies covered by veg and pellets together. However, the more you leave out foods that they would not have foraged much off (roots, grains and fruit), the more you boost a healthy life span. Always introduce any new food in a small quantity during the first few meals so the gut bacteria can adapt and gear up accordingly.

You have to either introduce any desirable foods (like fresh growing grass) gradually, working up from very small taster amounts up to a normal portion or - if they are more in the way of treats/junk food groups like carrots and any fruit - simply leave them off the menu altogether for the future.

Concentrate instead of making their normal dinner time fun time with sprinkle feeding veg and pellets around the cage, making them work for their dinner by wrapping food up in a bit of brown paper, training them to come to you for their favourite veg etc.

Older guinea pigs whose nutrient absorption is no longer working quite smoothly can also in some cases develop sensitivities to some regular fresh foods and react with persistent mild bloating and diarrhea (please vet check to make sure that there is nothing else behind that before coming to that conclusion).

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets